Making Sweet Microwave Popcorn – Like The Cinema

I bought popcorn kernels ages ago with the intention of putting them into a pan to make but really never got round to it. I’d planned a Lakeland delivery as we needed some more sodastream gas canisters – so I added their microwave popcorn maker to the basket.

I thought it was the best of the options as it was £16.99 and would fit in a cupboard between uses. My gadget count has been increasing lately and my kitchen counters are beginning to fill up with the load placed on them.

I’d tried just putting some kernels into a microwave container but most of them didn’t pop so this was my last attempt at finding something space-saving to make fresh popcorn with. The biggest problem was that although I like plain popcorn, my the boys like sweet popcorn, just how it comes when we go to the pictures. Actually, so do the gerbils.

We’ve managed to get it right and it was easier than I thought. All we needed to do was simply add a few spoons of icing sugar to the kernels in the bowl and mix it all around. Don’t be tempted to try butter added to the sugar. We did – and it tastes great, but the heat with the butter does unspeakable things to the microwave bowl.

Simply add enough popcorn kernels to fill the measuring scoop to the maximum line on the measuring cup. Leave plain or stir in some icing sugar and just microwave until most kernels are popped. It will take about 2.5 – 4 minutes depending on the strength of your microwave. Our newer microwave sadly needs 4 minutes to make popcorn whereas our last one would have done it in the 2.5 minutes.

You can sprinkle sugar on after making popcorn, but we’ve found it didn’t imitate the cinema popcorn experience that way.

There will be some unpopped kernels in the bottom of the bowl. Try to resist having another go at popping unpopped kernels. They didn’t pop for a reason, and many are likely to burn and smell awful if you try again.

What we have now though is popcorn on tap whenever we want and without mess or having to have packets of the stuff in the cupboard at a fortune in comparison money wise. It’s a win win for us. I’m glad I bought it as we will get lots of use out of it.

The next time we go to the cinema, we may just squirrel some bags of it to take with us since it’s so expensive there, but shhh, that’s not really allowed is it?

What works really well is if you melt a desertspoon or two of sugar with a little water in a deep saucepan, and then bring to the boil. Then just tip the popped corn in and stir well. We are big fans of this in our house, and although maybe not as healthy as the plain variety, it does at least have the added benefit of only two ingredients and none of them beginning with E